The spiritual power in the fragments of the Suzaku Sword was limited, and was unable to withstand Ning Buwei’s extravagant usage, like spending money without restraint. Accustomed to his past lavish expenditure of spiritual power, he realized midway through the formation that things were going awry. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and forcibly revise the formation.
Ning Xiu, who had been quiet in his arms for a while, suddenly reached out to him excitedly, as if he hadn’t seen him for a long time.
Ning Buwei didn’t have time to pay attention to Ning Xiu at that moment, but he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that the child’s wrist had an additional crimson ring of spiritual power. Ning Buwei felt that it looked somewhat familiar, but he didn’t have time to think it through. He reached out, plucked it off, and stuffed it into the broken blade, saying, “Perfect timing!”
This little bit of spiritual power was not much, but it happened to solve Ning Buwei’s urgent need. After completing the formation within the formation, Ning Buwei put Ning Xiu into his arms and after a tumultuous and chaotic surge, they rolled to the ground.
“Who!?” Someone shouted loudly, and a sword light flashed into Ning Buwei’s throat.
Ning Buwei’s eyes instantly filled with murderous intent, and the fragments of the Suzaku Sword between his fingers buzzed. Just when he was about to take action, Ning Xiu in his arms suddenly burst into tears.
The man holding the sword paused and looked at the child in Ning Buwei’s arms, then the sword slightly deviated a few inches.
Another person was much more polite and asked, “Why did this fellow cultivator appear here?”
Ning Buwei stood up, holding Ning Xiu in his arms, and glanced at the two cultivators before him, dressed in green robes with lotus crown headpieces. He discreetly stuffed the broken blade into Ning Xiu’s clothing and said, “There was a mishap with the teleportation array, apologies for the disturbance.”
Only a handful of people across the entire seventeen states had seen his true face, and most of those who had were no longer alive, therefore he wasn’t particularly worried about being recognized by others.
The two cultivators, seeing him holding a child, with not much cultivation, and at the moment were dressed shabbily, probably felt that he was not a threat, so they put away their swords.
One of them said, “We ask this fellow cultivator to please leave quickly.”
“We’ll go at once.” Ning Buwei’s eyes fell on their waist tokens. It was a sect pattern of auspicious clouds and cranes–looks like the Yunzhong Sect of Liuzhou, Gen Prefecture. “May I ask where this is? The child is hungry, I am going to find some food for him.”
“This is the Pingzhi Cliff seven miles outside of Linjiang City in Zhongzhou. If you walk east along this place, you’ll see the gate of Linjiang City.” The other person pointed out the direction to him.
Ning Buwei smiled and said, “Thank you very much.”
“Hurry up and go, the crying is unsettling.” The cultivator who had pointed a sword at Ning Buwei muttered.
“Zichen.” The other person signaled him not to speak recklessly.
Zichen curled his lips and lowered his head to look at the flowers that were about to bloom on the cliff.
The man with a child had taken a few steps forward when he suddenly turned his head and said with a smile, “Oh, that’s right, there is one more thing——”
When Zichen heard this, he looked up at him impatiently, but his eyes widened in astonishment the next moment. A piece of broken blade with a cold light pierced his neck, causing blood to draw a beautiful arc in the air.
“I really hate it when people point swords at me,” Ning Buwei said as he covered Ning Xiu’s eyes with a piece of cloth, and the smile on his face was slowly widening.
“Zichen!” The other person drew his sword and glared angrily at Ning Buwei, “Who the hell are you!?”
How, this person obviously has no cultivation, however he didn’t even see clearly how the other party moved his hands!
Zisong attempted to mobilize his spiritual power to kill this man to avenge his junior martial brother, however he found himself unable to mobilize even a trace of spiritual power at the moment. Chills ran up his spine from the soles of his feet, and he actually felt pressure from the other person.
“You guess?” Ning Buwei’s smile was slightly restrained and the fragments of the Suzaku Sword penetrated Zisong’s neck and flew back to his fingers.
Zisong clutched his neck, gasping for breath, his eyes were still filled with lingering fear. He convulsed and collapsed to the ground.
Ning Buwei, feeling somewhat irritable, wiped the blood from the blade onto the outer robe covering Ning Xiu. Ning Xiu appeared exhausted from crying and was now sobbing intermittently. His small hands were not well-behaved either, and tried to lift the fabric covering his eyes.
However, Ning Buwei covered him a bit more tightly.
He had already set up a formation in advance within the teleportation array where he landed. He had made countless enemies, naturally, it’s impossible to just hand one’s life into the hands of others.
These two disciples of the Yunzhong Sect didn’t have much on them. They only had a few hundred medium grade spirit stones and two wooden signs that read ‘Linjiang Conference’. Ning Buwei took a look at them, took one and stuffed it into his arms. As he stood up to leave, a strange fragrance wafted from the cliff’s edge.
Ning Buwei walked to the edge of the cliff and took a look. A nine-leaf lotus had just bloomed, its light blue petals swaying gently in the wind.
Ning Buwei reached out and plucked the nine-leaf lotus from the edge of the cliff, and stuffed it into Ning Xiu in his arms.
Ning Xiu was feeling aggrieved at the moment. He couldn’t see anything in the darkness in front of his eyes and didn’t have the strength to cry anymore. He was making sniffling and whimpering sounds. Suddenly, a glowing and beautiful flower appeared in his little hand. He perked up instantly, holding the flower beneath his clothes and staring at it for a while before reaching out to pluck one of its petals.
As the petal was plucked, it still emitted a faint blue light. Ning Xiu smacked his lips and stuffed the petal into his mouth, unexpectedly, the petal melted inside. Ning Xiu’s eyes suddenly lit up.
More delicious than father’s hand!
Ning Buwei carried him all the way to the east. After finding a water source and washing his hands, he opened the cover to look, only to find that most of a nine-leaf lotus flower had already been eaten by the little brat.
Ning Buwei plucked a petal and tasted it. It was sweet and a little bitter. When he was young, he often picked a large handful and ate it as snacks. Now when he tasted it, he just felt that it didn’t have much flavor.
He stuffed the half-eaten flower petal into Ning Xiu’s mouth, and Ning Xiu happily began to nibble on it.
Ning Buwei poked his bulging belly, “How can you eat so much?”
“Ah~” Ning Xiu trembled his little body after being poked by him.
Ning Buwei gave a snort of laughter and threw the flower stem to the ground, “Enter the city and find something delicious to give you.”
Ning Buwei killed people, robbed spirit stones, and plucked flowers for his son as snacks. The father and son then left happily.
When Han Ziyang and Feng Zizhang returned to Pingzhi Cliff from the Endless River, what they saw were the bodies of their fellow disciples.
“Senior Brother Zichen! Senior Brother Zisong!” Feng Zizhang’s face turned deathly pale, and he was so overcome with emotion that he seemed ready to jump down from his sword to the cliff. However, Han Ziyang grabbed his arm to prevent him from doing so.
Feng Zizhang struggled to jump down and shouted in a crying voice, “Senior brother, let go of me! I’ll go save both the senior brothers!”
“They are both dead.” Han Ziyang said with a cold expression, “You going down rashly, it will only be a waste of life.”
Feng Zizhang obviously couldn’t accept this fact, “The senior brothers might still be saved——”
“Killed with one blow, the soul lamps were extinguished.” Han Ziyang held out the Xuantian Mirror, which projected the soul lamps of the disciples in Yunzhong Sect. The soul lamps belonging to Wu Zichen and Wu Zisong had already gone out.
He was obviously much calmer than Feng Zizhang. He frowned and carefully observed the situation at Pingzhi Cliff. The Xuantian Mirror trembled crazily again, almost making him unable to control it. The weird formation underneath was a hundred times more powerful than the evil formation by the Endless River just now. The spiritual energy within the formation was extremely formidable.
“It’s my lack of foresight,” Han Ziyang said coldly. “It’s the first time for the three of you going out of the sect to gain experience. I shouldn’t have left Zisong and Zichen alone.”
Although the Nine-Leafed Lotus was a rare find, its practical use was limited, which was why he had initially felt comfortable leaving the two of them to guard it. Little did he know that in less than a quarter of an hour, they would meet their tragic end here.
Feng Zizhang was already sobbing uncontrollably, clutching the glass ball tightly in his hand. “Senior Brother, who could have done this? I will avenge Senior Brother Zisong and Zichen!”
“Don’t cry anymore,” Han Ziyang turned to him and said, “The world of cultivation has always been a place where the strong prey on the weak. Killing and robbing for treasures is a common thing, and when you’re not as skilled as the other, you can lose your life at any moment. Even if you cry for them, they won’t come back to life.”
Feng Zizhang sniffled and looked at him with red eyes. He couldn’t help but feel that the once amiable senior brother from their sect now seemed like a complete stranger. He wiped away his tears with his sleeve. “But, but Senior Brothers Zisong and Zichen and I grew up together… They are like my own senior brothers—”
As he said that, he was about to activate the glass ball to break the formation.
Han Ziyang stopped him, “What are you doing?”
“I want to retrieve the bodies of the senior brothers!” Feng Zizhang, overwhelmed with grief, even felt some resentment towards his senior brother for being so indifferent to the deaths of their fellow sect members in front of them. “I want to bring them back to Yunzhong Sect! You might not care, but I do!”
Han Ziyang remained silent for a moment, took a deep breath, and led Feng Zizhang further away from the Pingzhe Cliff. A burst of strong light erupted from the Xuantian Mirror, focusing on the eye of the formation – the person who had set up the formation didn’t seem to mind revealing the location of the formation’s eye, it was even too blatant.
“Break!” Han Ziyang forced the formation to break, a mouthful of sweet blood welled up in his throat, and he swayed as he stood on his sword.
Feng Zizhang wiped away his tears fiercely and leaped off the sword, tumbling and crawling to the side of the two corpses.
“Zizhang! Come back!” Han Ziyang looked behind him, his pupils shrank suddenly. He swiftly flew towards him on his sword, picked him up and placed him on the sword, but then his body suddenly stiffened.
“Senior brother?” Feng Zizhang looked at him in confusion, his expression bewildered.
Countless small, emerald-green vines pierced through Han Ziyang’s chest, waving arrogantly its teeth and claws at him. Drops of crimson blood fell onto the back of Feng Zizhang’s hand and sleeve, and the pungent smell of blood mixed with a mysterious fragrance, splattered onto Feng Zizhang’s face.
Han Ziyang slowly lowered his head, and looked at the vines that passed through his heart, then he grabbed Feng Zizhang’s hand and pushed him away, “Go…”
Before the tears in Feng Zizhang’s eyes could fall, Xuantian Mirror protected him over his chest and he was pushed away with great momentum.
“Senior brother——”
Heart-rending roars resounded above the Pingzhi Cliff. Countless green vines emerged from the ground, densely covering the entire Pingzhi Cliff. They tightly wrapped around the three corpses, dragging them underground, and in an instant, calm was restored.
Feng Zizhang, protected by the Xuantian Mirror, was brought to the gates of Linjiang City. His originally clean and meticulous green robe was covered with blood and dust, and the whole person collapsed to the ground in despair as if he had lost his soul.
“Can’t read?” A smiling male voice sounded from not far away.
Feng Zizhang looked up and saw a handsome, free and wanton man holding what appeared to be an infant not yet a month old, pointing to the three characters “Linjiang City” above the city gate with the little baby and teaching him how to read the three characters.
Feng Zizhang recalled his mischievous childhood, when Senior Brother Zisong and Senior Brother Zichen pressed his head and forced him to read and study, but at the same time were also gentle and upright. Couldn’t help but feel sad, tears were shed on his green robe.
“Say it with Father.” The man’s eyes were smiling, as if he really wanted to teach the child in his arms, “De–li–cious.”
Feng Zizhang, who was crying bitterly: “…..”
The little baby in the man’s arms let out a few “Ah ah ah” sounds, then its watery eyes fell on Feng Zizhang under the city wall, and said in a milky voice, “Ah?”
The man followed his gaze and looked over, then said nonchalantly, “Oh, that’s a fool.”
The little baby turned its head and stuck out its tongue at the man, “Ah~”
Feng Zizhang, who was suddenly accused of being a fool: “??”
The spiritual power in the fragments of the Suzaku Sword was limited, and was unable to withstand Ning Buwei’s extravagant usage, like spending money without restraint. Accustomed to his past lavish expenditure of spiritual power, he realized midway through the formation that things were going awry. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and forcibly revise the formation.
Ning Xiu, who had been quiet in his arms for a while, suddenly reached out to him excitedly, as if he hadn’t seen him for a long time.
Ning Buwei didn’t have time to pay attention to Ning Xiu at that moment, but he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that the child’s wrist had an additional crimson ring of spiritual power. Ning Buwei felt that it looked somewhat familiar, but he didn’t have time to think it through. He reached out, plucked it off, and stuffed it into the broken blade, saying, “Perfect timing!”
This little bit of spiritual power was not much, but it happened to solve Ning Buwei’s urgent need. After completing the formation within the formation, Ning Buwei put Ning Xiu into his arms and after a tumultuous and chaotic surge, they rolled to the ground.
“Who!?” Someone shouted loudly, and a sword light flashed into Ning Buwei’s throat.
Ning Buwei’s eyes instantly filled with murderous intent, and the fragments of the Suzaku Sword between his fingers buzzed. Just when he was about to take action, Ning Xiu in his arms suddenly burst into tears.
The man holding the sword paused and looked at the child in Ning Buwei’s arms, then the sword slightly deviated a few inches.
Another person was much more polite and asked, “Why did this fellow cultivator appear here?”
Ning Buwei stood up, holding Ning Xiu in his arms, and glanced at the two cultivators before him, dressed in green robes with lotus crown headpieces. He discreetly stuffed the broken blade into Ning Xiu’s clothing and said, “There was a mishap with the teleportation array, apologies for the disturbance.”
Only a handful of people across the entire seventeen states had seen his true face, and most of those who had were no longer alive, therefore he wasn’t particularly worried about being recognized by others.
The two cultivators, seeing him holding a child, with not much cultivation, and at the moment were dressed shabbily, probably felt that he was not a threat, so they put away their swords.
One of them said, “We ask this fellow cultivator to please leave quickly.”
“We’ll go at once.” Ning Buwei’s eyes fell on their waist tokens. It was a sect pattern of auspicious clouds and cranes–looks like the Yunzhong Sect of Liuzhou, Gen Prefecture. “May I ask where this is? The child is hungry, I am going to find some food for him.”
“This is the Pingzhi Cliff seven miles outside of Linjiang City in Zhongzhou. If you walk east along this place, you’ll see the gate of Linjiang City.” The other person pointed out the direction to him.
Ning Buwei smiled and said, “Thank you very much.”
“Hurry up and go, the crying is unsettling.” The cultivator who had pointed a sword at Ning Buwei muttered.
“Zichen.” The other person signaled him not to speak recklessly.
Zichen curled his lips and lowered his head to look at the flowers that were about to bloom on the cliff.
The man with a child had taken a few steps forward when he suddenly turned his head and said with a smile, “Oh, that’s right, there is one more thing——”
When Zichen heard this, he looked up at him impatiently, but his eyes widened in astonishment the next moment. A piece of broken blade with a cold light pierced his neck, causing blood to draw a beautiful arc in the air.
“I really hate it when people point swords at me,” Ning Buwei said as he covered Ning Xiu’s eyes with a piece of cloth, and the smile on his face was slowly widening.
“Zichen!” The other person drew his sword and glared angrily at Ning Buwei, “Who the hell are you!?”
How, this person obviously has no cultivation, however he didn’t even see clearly how the other party moved his hands!
Zisong attempted to mobilize his spiritual power to kill this man to avenge his junior martial brother, however he found himself unable to mobilize even a trace of spiritual power at the moment. Chills ran up his spine from the soles of his feet, and he actually felt pressure from the other person.
“You guess?” Ning Buwei’s smile was slightly restrained and the fragments of the Suzaku Sword penetrated Zisong’s neck and flew back to his fingers.
Zisong clutched his neck, gasping for breath, his eyes were still filled with lingering fear. He convulsed and collapsed to the ground.
Ning Buwei, feeling somewhat irritable, wiped the blood from the blade onto the outer robe covering Ning Xiu. Ning Xiu appeared exhausted from crying and was now sobbing intermittently. His small hands were not well-behaved either, and tried to lift the fabric covering his eyes.
However, Ning Buwei covered him a bit more tightly.
He had already set up a formation in advance within the teleportation array where he landed. He had made countless enemies, naturally, it’s impossible to just hand one’s life into the hands of others.
These two disciples of the Yunzhong Sect didn’t have much on them. They only had a few hundred medium grade spirit stones and two wooden signs that read ‘Linjiang Conference’. Ning Buwei took a look at them, took one and stuffed it into his arms. As he stood up to leave, a strange fragrance wafted from the cliff’s edge.
Ning Buwei walked to the edge of the cliff and took a look. A nine-leaf lotus had just bloomed, its light blue petals swaying gently in the wind.
Ning Buwei reached out and plucked the nine-leaf lotus from the edge of the cliff, and stuffed it into Ning Xiu in his arms.
Ning Xiu was feeling aggrieved at the moment. He couldn’t see anything in the darkness in front of his eyes and didn’t have the strength to cry anymore. He was making sniffling and whimpering sounds. Suddenly, a glowing and beautiful flower appeared in his little hand. He perked up instantly, holding the flower beneath his clothes and staring at it for a while before reaching out to pluck one of its petals.
As the petal was plucked, it still emitted a faint blue light. Ning Xiu smacked his lips and stuffed the petal into his mouth, unexpectedly, the petal melted inside. Ning Xiu’s eyes suddenly lit up.
More delicious than father’s hand!
Ning Buwei carried him all the way to the east. After finding a water source and washing his hands, he opened the cover to look, only to find that most of a nine-leaf lotus flower had already been eaten by the little brat.
Ning Buwei plucked a petal and tasted it. It was sweet and a little bitter. When he was young, he often picked a large handful and ate it as snacks. Now when he tasted it, he just felt that it didn’t have much flavor.
He stuffed the half-eaten flower petal into Ning Xiu’s mouth, and Ning Xiu happily began to nibble on it.
Ning Buwei poked his bulging belly, “How can you eat so much?”
“Ah~” Ning Xiu trembled his little body after being poked by him.
Ning Buwei gave a snort of laughter and threw the flower stem to the ground, “Enter the city and find something delicious to give you.”
Ning Buwei killed people, robbed spirit stones, and plucked flowers for his son as snacks. The father and son then left happily.
When Han Ziyang and Feng Zizhang returned to Pingzhi Cliff from the Endless River, what they saw were the bodies of their fellow disciples.
“Senior Brother Zichen! Senior Brother Zisong!” Feng Zizhang’s face turned deathly pale, and he was so overcome with emotion that he seemed ready to jump down from his sword to the cliff. However, Han Ziyang grabbed his arm to prevent him from doing so.
Feng Zizhang struggled to jump down and shouted in a crying voice, “Senior brother, let go of me! I’ll go save both the senior brothers!”
“They are both dead.” Han Ziyang said with a cold expression, “You going down rashly, it will only be a waste of life.”
Feng Zizhang obviously couldn’t accept this fact, “The senior brothers might still be saved——”
“Killed with one blow, the soul lamps were extinguished.” Han Ziyang held out the Xuantian Mirror, which projected the soul lamps of the disciples in Yunzhong Sect. The soul lamps belonging to Wu Zichen and Wu Zisong had already gone out.
He was obviously much calmer than Feng Zizhang. He frowned and carefully observed the situation at Pingzhi Cliff. The Xuantian Mirror trembled crazily again, almost making him unable to control it. The weird formation underneath was a hundred times more powerful than the evil formation by the Endless River just now. The spiritual energy within the formation was extremely formidable.
“It’s my lack of foresight,” Han Ziyang said coldly. “It’s the first time for the three of you going out of the sect to gain experience. I shouldn’t have left Zisong and Zichen alone.”
Although the Nine-Leafed Lotus was a rare find, its practical use was limited, which was why he had initially felt comfortable leaving the two of them to guard it. Little did he know that in less than a quarter of an hour, they would meet their tragic end here.
Feng Zizhang was already sobbing uncontrollably, clutching the glass ball tightly in his hand. “Senior Brother, who could have done this? I will avenge Senior Brother Zisong and Zichen!”
“Don’t cry anymore,” Han Ziyang turned to him and said, “The world of cultivation has always been a place where the strong prey on the weak. Killing and robbing for treasures is a common thing, and when you’re not as skilled as the other, you can lose your life at any moment. Even if you cry for them, they won’t come back to life.”
Feng Zizhang sniffled and looked at him with red eyes. He couldn’t help but feel that the once amiable senior brother from their sect now seemed like a complete stranger. He wiped away his tears with his sleeve. “But, but Senior Brothers Zisong and Zichen and I grew up together… They are like my own senior brothers—”
As he said that, he was about to activate the glass ball to break the formation.
Han Ziyang stopped him, “What are you doing?”
“I want to retrieve the bodies of the senior brothers!” Feng Zizhang, overwhelmed with grief, even felt some resentment towards his senior brother for being so indifferent to the deaths of their fellow sect members in front of them. “I want to bring them back to Yunzhong Sect! You might not care, but I do!”
Han Ziyang remained silent for a moment, took a deep breath, and led Feng Zizhang further away from the Pingzhe Cliff. A burst of strong light erupted from the Xuantian Mirror, focusing on the eye of the formation – the person who had set up the formation didn’t seem to mind revealing the location of the formation’s eye, it was even too blatant.
“Break!” Han Ziyang forced the formation to break, a mouthful of sweet blood welled up in his throat, and he swayed as he stood on his sword.
Feng Zizhang wiped away his tears fiercely and leaped off the sword, tumbling and crawling to the side of the two corpses.
“Zizhang! Come back!” Han Ziyang looked behind him, his pupils shrank suddenly. He swiftly flew towards him on his sword, picked him up and placed him on the sword, but then his body suddenly stiffened.
“Senior brother?” Feng Zizhang looked at him in confusion, his expression bewildered.
Countless small, emerald-green vines pierced through Han Ziyang’s chest, waving arrogantly its teeth and claws at him. Drops of crimson blood fell onto the back of Feng Zizhang’s hand and sleeve, and the pungent smell of blood mixed with a mysterious fragrance, splattered onto Feng Zizhang’s face.
Han Ziyang slowly lowered his head, and looked at the vines that passed through his heart, then he grabbed Feng Zizhang’s hand and pushed him away, “Go…”
Before the tears in Feng Zizhang’s eyes could fall, Xuantian Mirror protected him over his chest and he was pushed away with great momentum.
“Senior brother——”
Heart-rending roars resounded above the Pingzhi Cliff. Countless green vines emerged from the ground, densely covering the entire Pingzhi Cliff. They tightly wrapped around the three corpses, dragging them underground, and in an instant, calm was restored.
Feng Zizhang, protected by the Xuantian Mirror, was brought to the gates of Linjiang City. His originally clean and meticulous green robe was covered with blood and dust, and the whole person collapsed to the ground in despair as if he had lost his soul.
“Can’t read?” A smiling male voice sounded from not far away.
Feng Zizhang looked up and saw a handsome, free and wanton man holding what appeared to be an infant not yet a month old, pointing to the three characters “Linjiang City” above the city gate with the little baby and teaching him how to read the three characters.
Feng Zizhang recalled his mischievous childhood, when Senior Brother Zisong and Senior Brother Zichen pressed his head and forced him to read and study, but at the same time were also gentle and upright. Couldn’t help but feel sad, tears were shed on his green robe.
“Say it with Father.” The man’s eyes were smiling, as if he really wanted to teach the child in his arms, “De–li–cious.”
Feng Zizhang, who was crying bitterly: “…..”
The little baby in the man’s arms let out a few “Ah ah ah” sounds, then its watery eyes fell on Feng Zizhang under the city wall, and said in a milky voice, “Ah?”
The man followed his gaze and looked over, then said nonchalantly, “Oh, that’s a fool.”
The little baby turned its head and stuck out its tongue at the man, “Ah~”
Feng Zizhang, who was suddenly accused of being a fool: “??”
